No matter what I put, there will obviously be people who disagree, and people who ignore this based on my inexperience. I'm going to try use this to my advantage; NGE is always one of the first animes mentioned in any newcomer thread I've seen, so I'll approach it like that: as a relative newcomer to the anime scene. So, without further ado:
Neon Genesis Evangelion doesn't really explain much in the opening episode. About a year ago I watched the pilot, thought "that's fairly cool", and then dropped it, so if you want to get a proper sense of it, watch the first three consecutively. Not only does this give you a better handle on what the hell's going on, they also give a bit of a preview of what you're dealing with here. The fight in the third episode is rather dark for the first half of the series, but it is more indicative of the latter half.
Anyways, the story is fairly simple, at least to begin with. A catastrophe known as Second Impact kills half the world's population, and 15 years later, giant monsters known as Angels attack Tokyo-3, the residence of our resident hero, Shinji Ikari. Shinji gets taken to his estranged father's workplace, is shown a giant robot and a barely living pilot of said giant robot, and is basically told to stop being such a whiny bitch and get in.
"Thus begins an epic tale, an almost Shakespearean bildungsroman, and a harrowing look into the deepest recesses of the mind..."
In other words, that's when stuff starts going down.
One thing I'd like to clarify before I continue. Evangelion isn't completely bleak from start to finish, I'd argue that episodes 7 to 15 are actually fairly lightweight for the most part. That's not to knock it though, episode 9 is still one of my favourites, but it's the last minutes of episode 15 that really kick the show into gear, and THUS begins the NGE that everyone remembers. I remember checking the Wiki entry for the show when I was about 10 episodes in, and going "Horror? Where's the horror?" Trust me, there's horror enough in the later episodes. And if that isn't good enough for you, get EoE.
The once-simple story quickly gets too complicated to summarise without major spoilers, so I'll leave it to you, suffice to say it contains enough "...the ****?" moments for all the family.
The characters. Oh boy, the characters. Yeah, here's where most of the controversy over the show comes in. Shinji's defining characteristic by the end is his angst, Asuka's is being a massive bitch, and Rei's is the whole utterly lacking a personality thing. That said, I loved them. Yup, I could forgive them for their unlikable qualities, and genuinely root for and relate to them. Maybe not all the time, but they all have their reasons for turning out the way they do, and I think it's a fairly realistic depiction of how most of us would actually react, if we were in their positions.
The art work is great, if a tiny bit dated. It's only an issue if you watch Rebuild first though, and it's in no way a wreck. However, as I've said, I'm a newbie, so don't take my word for it. I don't really know enough here to comment so I won't. All I'll say is, for the sake of your own enjoyment, don't over-analyse the crossplosions.
The music, for the most part, is pretty good. The soundtrack is usually fairly standard, the opening theme is brilliant, and I love the covers of Fly Me To the Moon. Thing is, as TVTropes will tell you, NGE is very fond of what's called "Soundtrack Dissonance", where they play beautiful, soothing music over horrific moments. It's done very well indeed and is usually massively unsettling. There's one particular scene in the show when a major character gets their mind torn to shreds and their horrifying past laid bare to a rather jaunty rendition of the Hallelujah Chorus. It's a scene that, to paraphrase Yahtzee Croshaw "Gripped me by the balls", even while it got almost too depressing to watch.
All in all, Neon Genesis Evangelion got to me. I loved the characters, loved the story, and it really made me think, so I can't really give it anything less than a 9 (It's not perfect, so I can't quite give it a 10, but the issues are really too minor to mention and it's easily a 9.9). It's a must-watch, as far as this beginner's concerned, and I hope this wasn't too terrible of a review to do it justice!
